After the very erudite paper on the Genevan Psalter which was read before this Association (in June, 1918) by Dr. Woodward, there is very little ground left for me to cover.

The whole question of metrical psalmody has been so thoroughly ventilated by so many authorities that but for the little book we are to discuss this afternoon, I doubt if I should have had anything fresh to say to you.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, I deeply appreciate the honour you have conferred on me by asking me to speak to you about early keyboard instruments, and I feel sure that you will agree that, as a very interested amateur speaking to a body of experts, I am entitled to a full measure of tolerance. May I ask you at the outset to believe that I am not here to initiate a Scrap-Your-Grand-Piano campaign or to advocate a programme of “Clavichords for All”? I come to suggest that, after an examination of the construction of these instruments, of their beauties and their limitations, we shall agree that for the proper appreciation of the music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it is essential both to recognise them and to use them. As far as I can discover from the Proceedings of this Association the last occasion on which these instruments were the subject of a paper was in 1885 when the late A. J. Hipkins spoke about them. Every musical historian gratefully recognises Mr. Hipkins's pioneer work, but a good deal of fresh material has come to light since those days.

In respect of educational equipment, America just now is like a sponge filled with water in every part of its organism. Schools, colleges, universities, abound in every State, and the mechanical means provided for their efficiency are unequalled in the case of any other country. If time had permitted, I should have liked to have described some educational centres, such as the finely equipped universities of Stanford, California; Cornell, New York; Urbana, Illinois; Madison, Wisconsin; Yale, Connecticut; Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Lawrence, Kansas; Seattle, Washington; and others at which I have lectured. It is sufficient to say that, in external appearance, in general facilities and breadth of opportunity, these places are probably second to none of the kind in the world.

During the earlier years of the nineteenth century a pianoforte recital without an orchestral accompaniment to at least one of the works, was a rarity and the concerto form was almost always used in all the greater performances. It was not, in fact, until 1837 that Moscheles ventured to introduce pianoforte-evenings without this addition. The great pianists wrote concertos or divertissements for their instrument and in order that these works could be performed by the amateur in his home, where there could be no orchestra, all the tuttis were printed in short score and with the appropriate dynamic marks. Thus a pianist often found himself playing music originally designed for strings, brass or wood wind. In consequence of the desire on the part of these amateurs for two and four hand reduction of operatic and symphonic works, numerous devices were added to the pianoforte for the purpose of giving the illusion of an orchestra. These may be grouped under the following headings:—

One of the most significant features of the musical thought of to-day is the increasing interest shown in the sixteenth century. This is, no doubt, partly the result of a natural and in some ways exaggerated reaction against the romantic movement, but it is also due to the fact that this period has much in common with the musical tendencies of to-day. In both we find the same passionate striving for expansion of idiom resulting in a longish period of transition: and in the earlier case, this led eventually to the establishment of the classical major and minor tonalities, instead of the old modal system; now it is the turn of the classical tonality to be expanded, and to what substitute the present stage of transition is leading is still uncertain.

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I feel highly honoured that this opportunity is offered to me of addressing you, to enable you to make a closer acquaintance with the work and the personality of the great Belgian musician, Philippe de Monte.

The importance of the English polyphonic school of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and the efforts made in your country also to bring to the fore so many masterpieces of your classical polyphony, make me confident of the interest you will take in the revelation of one of the greatest masters of the Flemish School of the same famous period.